Wednesday, May 28, 2008

You know how some financial institutions which work with your bank account make small deposits into your checking account to verify that you are the owner of that account? You sign up for an account (such as Paypal) and they make a couple small deposits (usually less than a 25 cents each) of varying amounts into your checking account. You then have to verify the amount of money they deposited into the account in order to complete the sign-up process.

Turns out this guy allegedly cobbled a script or two together which opened thousands of accounts at eTrade and others institutions which follow the same verification process. He made about $50k in six months before the secret service caught up to him.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Hinn's services, for example, follow a strict pattern that's calculated for maximum emotional impact and, not so coincidentally, maximum offering collection. From the time the crowd enters the arena, they're massaged with mood lighting, repetitive music, responsive chanting, group gestures, group singing, various forms of choral and instrumental entertainment, all leading up to the moment Hinn makes his entrance. The song sung for the entrance is "How Great Thou Art," making convenient use of an ambiguous personal pronoun.

Hinn repeats this same sentence three times, getting a bigger emotional reaction each time he says it.

Chant, song, gesture, salute--all the classic techniques used to submerge the individual into a group. It works for dictators and it works for Hinn. But now that he's joined them together in hope, he adds a dose of fear.